Wednesday, October 27, 2010

October 27, 2010 was the 6th annual Accessibility Awareness Exercise at the AIA in Dallas, Tx where architects use a wheel chair for one entire day. The idea is that they should "walk in their clients shoes" (pun intended). Architects are trained to design for the disabled, and make their buildings accessible and Universal, but until they sit in the chair for one day, they probably won't understand fully the impact those pesky circles and knee spaces that they put on their drawings have on the real world.

Every year they have a speaker that inspires us as architects to think about disabilities in a whole different light. This year's speaker was Walter Patterson. He is an amazing man who at 18 months contracted polio. He spoke about his journey from a toddler having to wear braces on his legs, to having to be horizontal on a wheel chair for 24 hrs at a time, to the time he was a teenager and was able to get his driver's license. Mundane things like these that we may take for granted, but so important to every kid as they grow up. He shared how he learned to play bass guitar so he could play in a band in high school because he couldn't dance and it was his only way to participate in the social gatherings.﻿ And in college he discovered gymnastics and was a winner in the sport. But his most amazing achievement with his polio was his trek up Mt. Everest!

Here is Walter as a toddler with his crutches and wheelchair in the back

Here is Walter at Base Camp of Mt.Everest

With his talk, Walter showed us how his disability did not impede his ability to live a full life!

"Only 1 out of 10 people (abled bodied or not) that made it to base camp go up to Mt. Evererst!. And the number one reason why they don't make it is that they never left home"

Walter had a vision and a plan but more than that he had persistence and a great attitude! He was also humble enough to accept that he would have to be carried part of the time in order to make it in 29 days (otherwise it could have taken twice as long- not that he couldn't have done it)

I read an article on USA Today last week about a group of blind and visually impaired kids and adults that went hiking down the Grand Canyon. Scary thought! I can't imagine me as an abled bodied person going hiking down such a rocky place next to an abyss, let alone if I had no sight! Wow! But that didn't stop them!

The lesson from all this is that there is no reason not to get to the top of "Your" mountain! Whatever that barrier or obstacle is for you, these amazing individuals show us that nothing is too difficult to surmount.

The National ADA Coordinators are putting on webinars on the new ADA, and we can view them as a group. Abadi Accessibility and ARS purchased the webinars and want to share them with you.
Each webinar is $10 and below is the agenda. If you have any questions, call me at 214-403-8714

Many new sections covering whole new facility types have been added in the 2010 ADA Standards. Two common facility types no longer have their own sections. Some VERY significant changes and clarifications have been made in those sections that were already included in the 1991 Standards. What has changed and how must those changes be incorporated into new, altered, and existing facilities?

If residential facilities are not (typically) covered by the ADA, why are there new standards for them? How do the covered residential facility types correlate with the ADA transient lodging and Fair Housing requirements?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

In keeping with the theme of my past two posts, children are now part of the ADA. In the 1991 version of the Amercians with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines, did not have any provisions for children. So even though facilities were accessible to different disabilities, there were still barriers for children.
In 1994 Texas adopted the Texas Accessibility Standards and added an entire section just for children. Section 2 of TAS shows how high drinking fountains, water closets, lavatories and grab bars need to be mounted...among other things. So for the past 16 years, Texas has been designing for children with disabilities.

Now the 2004 ADAAG has several places througout the standards that gives you specific requirement for children. The ADA Companion Guide shows examples and gives commentary on how the guidelines came to adopt the children's requirements.

Section 102 tells us:

"﻿The technical requirements are based on adult dimensions and anthropometrics. In addition, this

document includes technical requirements based on children’s dimensions and anthropometrics for

drinking fountains, water closets, toilet compartments, lavatories and sinks, dining surfaces, and work

surfaces."

New items that are also scoped for children, is play areas! Now instead of just requiring an accessible route up to the equipment, the components within the play area will have to comply. The requirements are lengthy, so we will be more specific in a different post.

Amusement rides are required to be accessible, but there is an exception 234.3 Exception 2 that states if rides are designed for children where adults put them on or take them off do not have to have a separate accessible loading area. But of course, it can be done, as we saw on my last post about Morgan's Wonderland where all can ride indendently.

Besides the scoping for what is required to comply, we also have reach ranges specific for children. Section 308 has a table just for children's reach ranges.

Drinking fountain requirements for children are found in chapter 6 602.2 Exception which says that children don't have to have a knee space, but can use a parallel approach for the drinking fountain. The spout must be at 30" a.f.f. and 3 1/2" max from the front edge.

Water closets, toilet compartments, grab bars and dispenser heights for children are found in Section 604.9 and there is a table that we use according to the different age groups.

Section 606 Lavatories and Sinks states that a knee clearance of 24" min. a.f.f. under a sink for children 6-12 is required. Rim or counter shall be 31" maximum high. And children five years old and younger can have a parallel approach.

So when the new ADA is required (March 15, 2012) children will be counted and will be given similar standards than the adults. Just like the old standards gave more independence and dignity to the adults with disabilities, the new guidelines now give more independence and dignity to our disabled children!

Monday, October 18, 2010

I while back I wrote about my very independent three year old who was getting potty trained and wanted to get on the toilet all by himself. Most of the time I hear "I can do this all by myself". Frustrating at times, but a huge sense of pride for me as a mom. Most disabled children feel the same way, and the frustration is typically more than the fact that the parents won't let them, but that they truly can't, given all the obstacles in their way. Disabled children want to be able to go to school, to the restroom and even to an amusement park and use the facilities independently or at least just be able to get in. There are many types of disabilities, such as mobility impaired, visually and hearing impaired. But some that we may not even think of are cognitive and emotional disabilities. A child with autism also wants to be able to enjoy his or her childhood but may have a hard time doing it in the same places as able bodied children. They may feel scared and confused and ovewhelmed with all the stimuli.

I typically deal with the disabilities that are written down as part of the ADA and I typically just deal with the built environment when I do my consulting work. But this weekend my eyes and mind were open to a huge and untapped world! While at the Texas Society of Architects convention in San Antonio, Texas I was priviliaged to attend one of the tours to a park called "Morgan's Wonderland". It is an amusement park for children with special needs. And what an amazing place!!!! The first thing you notice is that it does not look or feel like it is a "special" amusement park. It looks like a fun and safe place for all children. What a treat (the only complaint I had was that when we went the park was closed so I was not able to see how the children enjoyed the park...Next time)

A lot of time was spent in the design and care was taken to be all inclusive. And they succeeded! As we toured, the architect Kyle Tostenson from Luna Architecture in San Antonio, explained how they laid out the park for all the different disabilities, making it truly Univesal. The first stop we made was to the Carousel. The Carousel was equipped with all kinds of seats for each type of disability. Of course it had the regular seats, horses, chickens, dragons. But they also had ones with back support, ones for wheel chairs, and ones that were stationary for those who did not want to go up and down. It was a wonderful adaptation. All children can enjoy.

But beyond the physical impairedness comes the emotional and cognitive impairdness. For those children who are ovewhelmed by change and too many people, the one's that are autistic, the park decided to purchase a stationary horse that is right outside the carousel. That horse is out so that the child can experience the carousel and get used to it until he or she is ready to ride the real deal.

The﻿ entire park was one impressive experience after the other. There was fun rides, safe rides, rides that played on the senses, rides that allowed kids to be kids in a safe environment!

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This swing is for wheelchairs. The wheelchair is placed inside and flaps and chains keep it from falling out

This is a fishing pier at the park. Notice the different heights of rail which accommodates the children in wheelchairs (and even shorter folks like me ;-) )

This place is a true blessing! It is not only so well designed that anyone can use it, but it achieves what it set out to do:

"We wanted a safe place for my child to play"

So the can-do attitude of the owners, architects and builders and their problem solving expertise made a Wonderland for all!